# Gilligan goes on permanent 3-hr tour. Bob Denver dead at 70 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 6, 2005, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilligan-goes-on-permanent-3-hr-tour-bob-denver-dead-at-70/320383 "2005-09-06T18:36:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilligan-goes-on-permanent-3-hr-tour-bob-denver-dead-at-70/320383/41 "2005-09-07T01:31:17Z")
T’wasn’t a great show, but I watched about every episode of GI. He was better in Dobie Gillis, and I absolutely loved him in “The Good Guys” (I can still sing the theme song to that one!) It was a sort of proto-Seinfeld. But he was really awful in Dusty’s Trail. Of course, everyone was awful in that series. I don’t think it was his fault. To Bob: “I’m a good guy, hey, you’re another one too! Like a brother, each to the other one true blue!” ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilligan-goes-on-permanent-3-hr-tour-bob-denver-dead-at-70/320383/42 "2005-09-07T01:38:00Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > I’ll bet Mary-Ann comes to his funeral. She’s that kinda gal. I bet Tina Louise doesn’t, because she’s afraid of type-casketing. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilligan-goes-on-permanent-3-hr-tour-bob-denver-dead-at-70/320383/43 "2005-09-07T01:40:04Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > I bet Tina Louise doesn’t, because she’s afraid of type-casketing. She’s more afraid they’ll stick her in the coffin. She looks like Skeletor. ---
**Author:** ![cerberus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cerberus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cerberus)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilligan-goes-on-permanent-3-hr-tour-bob-denver-dead-at-70/320383/44 "2005-09-07T01:47:05Z")
Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip. That started from this tropic port, aboard this tiny ship. The mate(deceased) was a mighty sailin’ man, the skipper(deceased) brave and sure. Five passengers set sail that day, for a three hour tour, a three hour tour……… The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed. If not for the courage of the fearless crew, the Minnow would be lost; the Minnow would be lost. The ship took ground on the shore of this uncharted desert isle, with Gilligan(deceased), the Skipper(deceased) too, the Millionaire(deceased), and his Wife(deceased), the Movie Star, the Professor and Mary Ann, here on Gilligan’s Isle. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilligan-goes-on-permanent-3-hr-tour-bob-denver-dead-at-70/320383/45 "2005-09-07T01:56:38Z")
RIP. The mention of “Dusty’s Trail” got me to thinking. Though born in '64, somehow, I never saw reruns of GI until after I had seen the syndicated DT around '73 or so. I thought GI was a rip-off from it until I noted that Denver looked much younger in GI. Sir Rhosis ---
**Author:** ![zahara2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/53a042/32.png) [@zahara2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zahara2)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilligan-goes-on-permanent-3-hr-tour-bob-denver-dead-at-70/320383/46 "2005-09-07T02:01:30Z")
did they ever get off the island? i loved that show as a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilligan-goes-on-permanent-3-hr-tour-bob-denver-dead-at-70/320383/47 "2005-09-07T02:04:15Z")
Yeah, they made it off in 1978, then Gilligan restranded them on their anniversary tour. Got off again, started a hotel, and finally hosted the Harlem Globetrotters and a very shamefaced, why am I doing this crap Martin Landau. Sir Rhosis ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilligan-goes-on-permanent-3-hr-tour-bob-denver-dead-at-70/320383/48 "2005-09-07T02:44:29Z")
And they went into space. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilligan-goes-on-permanent-3-hr-tour-bob-denver-dead-at-70/320383/49 "2005-09-07T03:44:29Z")
I remember as a kid really enjoying Mr. Denver in [Who’s Minding The Mint?](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062490/) I haven’t seen it in years. Maybe somebody will air it now. That and “The Good Guys”. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilligan-goes-on-permanent-3-hr-tour-bob-denver-dead-at-70/320383/50 "2005-09-07T03:56:23Z")
> [@Sir Rhosis](#): > > Got off again, started a hotel, and finally hosted the Harlem Globetrotters and a very shamefaced, why am I doing this crap Martin Landau. Landau said he did it because he thought it was funny. He never badmouthed it. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilligan-goes-on-permanent-3-hr-tour-bob-denver-dead-at-70/320383/51 "2005-09-07T05:00:54Z")
> [@jrfranchi](#): > > Last Name. Full name was Willie Gilligan > Complete credited cast: > Bob Denver … Willie Gilligan (1964-1967) Interesting bit on [snopes](http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/gilligan.asp). They say that Willy was _considered_ as a given name, but was never used in the series. Sherwood Schwartz said ‘Gilligan’ was Gilligan’s given name, not his surname: > [@](#): > > In a further effort to make the characters prototypes rather than completely flesh and blood, **I decided to call them only by first names** or nicknames — excepting Mr. and Mrs. Thurston Howell III, of course, because that would have been out of keeping with their characters. Fair enough. But look at this other quote, also by Schwartz: > [@](#): > > To this day, almost every time I see Bob Denver we still argue. He thinks Gilligan is his first name, and **I think it’s his last name.** Because in the original presentation, it’s Willy Gilligan. But he doesn’t believe it, and he doesn’t want to discuss it. He insists the name is Gilligan. So in one quote Schwartz says it’s his given name, and in another he says it’s his surname. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilligan-goes-on-permanent-3-hr-tour-bob-denver-dead-at-70/320383/52 "2005-09-07T05:38:34Z")
I’d just like to say I think the series should have ended after Gilligan re-stranded them on the island in the movie – closing the circle was just a very _Gilligan’s Island_ thing to do. 🙂 So long, li’l buddy. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilligan-goes-on-permanent-3-hr-tour-bob-denver-dead-at-70/320383/53 "2005-09-07T05:57:07Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Oh, yeah, George Bernard Shaw had _nuthin’_ on Sherwood Schwartz. Shaw just flat-out stole one episode of Gilligan’s Island and made it into _Pygmalion_ (after the same episode was stolen by Lerner & Lowe and made into a musical, of course). Shameful. The movie “Surviving Gilligan’s Island”, available on DVD, is one of the best movies _about_ TV ever and I would highly recommend it. (I think it garnered the highest ratings of any network movie in years.) Screw Hunter S. Thompson. Bob deserves to go out in a 150 foot cannon. I was thrilled last Christmas when I got an e-mail from him. I’d ordered an autographed Gilligan shirt for a cousin (who didn’t appreciate it) and the order was screwed up because I stupidly mixed up the mailing address (I was in the process of moving and unthinkingly combined present and future addresses) so I wrote back to check on it and when I learned what the problem was I made some type of comment or other about how I’m so much an Alabamian hillbilly that even my address is inbred, expecting it to only be read by whoever did shipping. Bob himself wrote me back a short e-mail with a “LOL” and “thanks for the laugh” and a comment to the effect of “Having lived in both West Virginia and Los Angeles for years I can tell you, I’ll take living around inbred hillbillies over living around actors anyday of the week”. I thought "This is so \*&@#$ing cool---- I just got a LOL and an inbreeding joke from **FREAKING GILLIGAN!** (Of course he was a pothead, bless his heart, so making him laugh wasn’t that hard, but he was GILLIGAN!) > [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > “Neither a borrower nor a lender be, do not forget, stay out of debt…” “There’s just one other thing, you’ve got to do…” I’ll let somebody else bring it home ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilligan-goes-on-permanent-3-hr-tour-bob-denver-dead-at-70/320383/54 "2005-09-07T07:22:15Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Shaw just flat-out stole one episode of Gilligan’s Island and made it into _Pygmalion_ (after the same episode was stolen by Lerner & Lowe and made into a musical, of course). Shameful. > > The movie “Surviving Gilligan’s Island”, available on DVD, is one of the best movies _about_ TV ever and I would highly recommend it. (I think it garnered the highest ratings of any network movie in years.) > > Screw Hunter S. Thompson. Bob deserves to go out in a 150 foot cannon. I was thrilled last Christmas when I got an e-mail from him. I’d ordered an autographed Gilligan shirt for a cousin (who didn’t appreciate it) and the order was screwed up because I stupidly mixed up the mailing address (I was in the process of moving and unthinkingly combined present and future addresses) so I wrote back to check on it and when I learned what the problem was I made some type of comment or other about how I’m so much an Alabamian hillbilly that even my address is inbred, expecting it to only be read by whoever did shipping. > > Bob himself wrote me back a short e-mail with a “LOL” and “thanks for the laugh” and a comment to the effect of “Having lived in both West Virginia and Los Angeles for years I can tell you, I’ll take living around inbred hillbillies over living around actors anyday of the week”. > > I thought "This is so \*&@#$ing cool---- I just got a LOL and an inbreeding joke from **FREAKING GILLIGAN!** (Of course he was a pothead, bless his heart, so making him laugh wasn’t that hard, but he was GILLIGAN!) > > “There’s just one other thing, you’ve got to do…” > > I’ll let somebody else bring it home “To thine own self be true!” ---
**Author:** ![Vintage\_1957](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f04885/32.png) [@Vintage\_1957](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vintage_1957)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilligan-goes-on-permanent-3-hr-tour-bob-denver-dead-at-70/320383/55 "2005-09-07T12:51:36Z")
Do you think Bob will be included in the Memorium section at next year’s Oscars? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilligan-goes-on-permanent-3-hr-tour-bob-denver-dead-at-70/320383/56 "2005-09-07T12:52:14Z")
The ultimate tribute, from Sherwood Schwartz, in today’s _L.A. Times_: > [@](#): > > “People think it’s easy to fall down and get hit in the head with a coconut. And every time he’d find a different way to do that,” Schwartz said of Denver’s acting skill. ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilligan-goes-on-permanent-3-hr-tour-bob-denver-dead-at-70/320383/57 "2005-09-07T13:13:12Z")
I don’t know if someone posted this above (I don’t think they did), but he died as a result of complications from cancer treatment. ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilligan-goes-on-permanent-3-hr-tour-bob-denver-dead-at-70/320383/58 "2005-09-07T13:17:02Z")
> [@Vintage 1957](#): > > Do you think Bob will be included in the Memorium section at next year’s Oscars? I think it would be ok to exclude him. Looking at his [bio](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001134/), he really didn’t do many movies at all. He was pretty much a TV actor. In fact, I doubt he is even a member of the Academy. I don’t know if that is a requirement (did they show Rodney Dangerfield?) ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilligan-goes-on-permanent-3-hr-tour-bob-denver-dead-at-70/320383/59 "2005-09-07T14:17:17Z")
> [@cerberus](#): > > Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale … Just heard this on the radio: > [@Bo and Jim on KZPS](#): > > Gilligan’s dead … > The Skipper, too. > The Millionaire’s dead, > So’s his Wife. > While the Movie Star, > The Professor and Mary Ann > Are Just Barely Alive! ---
**Author:** ![5que](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/3bc359/32.png) [@5que](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5que)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilligan-goes-on-permanent-3-hr-tour-bob-denver-dead-at-70/320383/60 "2005-09-07T14:46:19Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I thought "This is so \*&@#$ing cool---- I just got a LOL and an inbreeding joke from **FREAKING GILLIGAN!** (Of course he was a pothead, bless his heart, so making him laugh wasn’t that hard, but he was GILLIGAN!) **Sampiro** , you are SO much my hero. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilligan-goes-on-permanent-3-hr-tour-bob-denver-dead-at-70/320383.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gilligan-goes-on-permanent-3-hr-tour-bob-denver-dead-at-70/320383.md?page=4)